Sebald's Segues

The author presents a narratological examination of W. G. Sebald's The Rings of Saturn that identifies this work as pivotal in this author's oeuvre. Taking as its starting point the observation that this text exhibits a structure of laminated layers reminiscent of the rings of Saturn named in its title, the analysis stresses the role of an omnipresent narrative consciousness in negotiating the transitions between themes, episodes, historical events, and intertextual allusions that constitute the text's compositional makeup. Referring to Lévi-Strauss's notion of bricolage, Konrad Lorenz's concept of the "fulguration," and Michel de Certeau's theory of the appropriative tactic, the essay argues that Sebald's narrator is constantly involved in a game of narrative problem solving in which he is the arbiter and negotiator of "segues," creative linkages that stitch together these diverse fragments into a coherent textual whole. This recombinatory practice underpins a critical rewriting of the modern history of Western civilization

Art · Bricolage · Contingency · Epistemology · Literature · Narrative · Narratology · History · Literature and Cultural Memory · Narrative Theory and Analysis · Philosophy

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